. >> and president obama and congressional republicans are making plenty of sound bytes about it all. but very little progress. abc's tahman bradley has the details from washington. >> reporter: democrats and republicans remain light years apart. here's president obama, in an interview with bloomberg tv, describing house speaker john boehner's plan to avoid the fiscal cliff. >> unfortunately the speaker's proposal right now is still out of balance. >> reporter: the speaker's plan would raise $800 billion in tax revenue. but does so without raising tax rates for top income earners. the president says that's unacceptable. >> we're going to have to see the rates on the top 2% go up. and we're not going to be able to get a deal without it. >> reporter: republicans, like rising star senator marco rubio, say raising taxes on the wealthy is the wrong approach. >> the tax increases he wants would fail to make even a small dent in the debt. it would hurt middle-class businesses and the people who work for them. >> reporter: so, that's the major holdup, taxes. republicans and democrats deeply d